The Sociology of Compromise after Conflict

302 Pages·2018·2.37 MB·English

by  John D. Brewer

PALGRAVE
STUDIES IN
COMPROMISE
AFTER CONFLICT
THE SOCIOLOGY OF
COMPROMISE AFTER
CONFLICT
EDITED BY JOHN D. BREWER WITH
BERNADETTE C. HAYES AND FRANCIS TEENEY
Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict
Series Editor
John D. Brewer
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, UK
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch, South Africa
This series aims to bring together in one series scholars from around the
world who are researching the dynamics of post-conflict transformation
in societies emerging from communal conflict and collective violence.
The series welcomes studies of particular transitional societies emerging
from conflict, comparative work that is cross-national, and theoretical
and conceptual contributions that focus on some of the key processes in
post-conflict transformation. The series is purposely interdisciplinary and
addresses the range of issues involved in compromise, reconciliation and
societal healing. It focuses on interpersonal and institutional questions,
and the connections between them.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/14641
John D. Brewer
Editor
The Sociology of
Compromise after
Conflict
Editor
John D. Brewer
Queen’s University Belfast
Belfast, UK
Stellenbosch University
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict
ISBN 978-3-319-78743-5 ISBN 978-3-319-78744-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78744-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018943705
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
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For Catriona, Bronwen, Gwyn, Fiachra, Russell, Lori, Matilda,
Tobias, and Merryn
whom I love
Series Editor’s Preface
Compromise is a much-used but little-understood term. There is a sense
in which it describes a set of feelings (the so-called ‘spirit’ of compromise)
that involve reciprocity, representing the agreement to make mutual con-
cessions towards each other from now on: no matter what we did to each
other in the past, we will act towards each other in the future differently
as set out in the agreement between us. The compromise settlement can
be a spit and a handshake, much beloved in folklore, or a legally binding
statute with hundreds of clauses.
As such, it is clear that compromise enters into conflict transformation
at two distinct phases. The first is during the conflict resolution process
itself, where compromise represents a willingness amongst parties to
negotiate a peace agreement that represents a second-best preference in
which they give up their first preference (victory) in order to cut a deal. A
great deal of literature has been produced in Peace Studies and
International Relations on the dynamics of the negotiation process and
the institutional and governance structures necessary to consolidate the
agreement afterwards. Just as important, however, is compromise in the
second phase, when compromise is part of post-conflict reconstruction
and reconciliation, in which protagonists come to learn to live together
despite their former enmity and in face of the atrocities perpetrated dur-
ing the conflict itself.
vii
viii Series Editor’s Preface
In the first phase, compromise describes reciprocal agreements between
parties to the negotiations in order to make political concessions suffi-
cient to end violence; in the second phase, compromise involves victims
and perpetrators developing ways of living together in which interper-
sonal concessions are made as part of shared social life. The first is about
compromises between political groups and the state in the process of
state-building (or rebuilding) after the political upheavals of communal
conflict; the second is about compromises between individuals and com-
munities in the process of social healing after the cultural trauma pro-
voked by the conflict. Reconciliation in the second phase is as protracted
and difficult as in the first, and usually takes longer.
This book series primarily concerns itself with the second process, the
often messy and difficult job of reconciliation, restoration, and repair in
social and cultural relations following communal conflict. Communal
conflicts and civil wars tend to suffer from the narcissism of minor differ-
ences, to coin Freud’s phrase, leaving little to be split halfway and com-
promise on, and thus are usually especially bitter. The series therefore
addresses itself to the meaning, manufacture, and management of com-
promise in one of its most difficult settings. The book series is cross-
national and cross-disciplinary, with attention paid to interpersonal
reconciliation at the level of everyday life, as well as culturally between
social groups, and the many sorts of institutional, interpersonal, psycho-
logical, sociological, anthropological, and cultural factors that assist and
inhibit societal healing in the array of post-conflict societies, historically
and in the present. It focuses on what compromise means when people
have to come to terms with past enmity and the memories of the conflict
itself, and relate to former protagonists in ways that consolidate the wider
political agreement.
This sort of focus has special resonance and significance, for peace
agreements are usually very fragile. Societies emerging out of conflict are
subject to ongoing violence from spoiler groups who are reluctant to give
up on first preferences, constant threats from the outbreak of renewed
violence, institutional instability, weakened economies, and a wealth of
problems around transitional justice, memory, truth recovery, and vic-
timhood, amongst others. Not surprisingly, therefore, reconciliation and
Series Editor’s Prefac e ix
healing in social and cultural relations are difficult to achieve, not least
because interpersonal compromise between erstwhile enemies is difficult.
Lay discourse picks up on the ambivalent nature of compromise after
conflict. It is talked about in common sense in one of two ways, in which
compromise is either a virtue or a vice, taking its place among the angels
or in Hades. One form of lay discourse likens concessions to former pro-
tagonists with the idea of restoration of broken relationships and societal
and cultural reconciliation, in which there is a sense of becoming (or
returning) to wholeness and completeness. The other form of lay dis-
course invokes ideas of appeasement, of being compromised by the con-
cessions, which constitute a form of surrender and reproduce (or disguise)
continued brokenness and division. People feel they continue to be
beaten by the sticks which the concessions have allowed others to keep;
with restoration, however, weapons are turned truly into ploughshares.
Lay discourse suggests, therefore, that there are issues that the Palgrave
Studies in Compromise after Conflict series must begin to problematise,
so that the process of societal healing is better understood and can be
assisted and facilitated by public policy and intervention.
These are issues the editors and authors address directly in this highly
significant book in the series, where the nature, practice, and effects of
compromise after conflict are conceptualised sociologically using empiri-
cal data drawn from research on victims of communal conflict in Northern
Ireland, Sri Lanka, and South Africa. Compromise is a term most often
theorised by philosophers and ethicists, whose work is highly non-
empirical. This edited collection is thus pioneering by proposing a socio-
logical approach that is built on detailed and prolonged empirical
research. Based on six years’ research between 2009 and 2015 and funded
by the Leverhulme Trust under grant number F/00152/AK, the research
combined quantitative survey data in the general population and in-
depth interview data with victims of conflict, in three different kinds of
post-conflict society.
This contribution to the Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict
series is the first to appear from the Leverhulme Trust research programme
‘Compromise after Conflict’ that gave its name to the Palgrave Series. As
the first book to publish on the results—envisaged as the first of three—its
x Series Editor’s Preface
strength is that it is both conceptual and empirical. John Brewer, the
Principal Investigator on the Leverhulme research programme, has used
the research to develop a new sociological approach to compromise, and
as many members of the research programme who felt able and willing,
including PhD students and consultants, have written individual chap-
ters to illustrate, elucidate, or expand on this approach by drawing on the
work they conducted for the programme. The task of editing this volume
was undertaken solely by John Brewer, but his co-investigators on the
grant have joined him as co-editors of this volume.
The volume is unique in that it proffers a sociological view on the
nature of compromise to help us understand how it might be practised in
post-conflict societies, and draws on detailed empirical research with vic-
tims to test its usefulness and validity. The study is thus at the interface
between theory and practice and contributes to both, making it essential
reading for practitioners and policymakers dealing with the aftermath of
communal violence, and for academic researchers trying to get a grasp on
what is a very slippery concept. The Series Editor warmly welcomes this
latest book to the Palgrave Studies in Compromise after Conflict series.
Belfast, UK John D. Brewer
January 2018